What I am going to say here is probably going to upset some folks, and some will no doubt think I’m a money grabbing meanie who would sell her granny….. but I am sick and tired of our own mealy-mouthed, double standard attitudes to who we are and what we are doing. It goes back to my post on ’Giving Value’ and maintaining your integrity.
Most of us who write blogs or work online producing websites and so on do it for one reason and one reason only – to make money. There are other paybacks – personal glory, the opportunity to air one’s opinions to name but two, but at the root of it, if we are honest, we do it to make money. I have no issue whatsoever with that – it’s what I do. I am not ashamed of it in any way. Many of us earn money by means of selling or recommending products for which we receive a commission when they are sold – affiliate marketing. Fine, no problem – why not? We produce our web sites and send out our message to the general public and use all our wiles and ways to make them choose our website to buy from. Fine, no problem – why not? Our sites are shop fronts and shops exist to make a profit. It is open and above board.
But – and this is the bit that gets me mad, when we discuss things amongst our fellow marketers and recommend a product to help our business we get all coy and shy and come out with statements such as ‘there aren’t any affiliate links here’ or ‘I don’t want to make money out of you but…’ and other such statements. Why? What is wrong with using affiliate links in that situation – is your friend going to lose out and pay more because you don’t make anything – No! The price is the price – you wouldn’t go into a shop on your local high street and hear the shopkeeper say ‘This is a really nice loaf of bread, the best loaf of bread in town but I’m not going to sell it to you because I don’t want to make money out of you’. What twaddle!
The key to all of this is the product you are recommending. In the circumstances I have described these products are generally IM related – albeit loosely on some occasions. You do use it yourself, don’t you? You do believe it is good value, don’t you? You have tried it, haven’t you? You can vouch for it from personal use, can’t you? You do believe it will help your friend, don’t you? You do believe in it as a product, don’t you? If you can answer most of those questions in the affirmative – why shouldn’t you make some money out of it? Your ‘friend’ won’t pay any less for it if you don’t make a commission so what’s the issue? They will benefit from using it – you have, so why shouldn’t they. You are not making them pay any more for it just because they use your Clickbank (or whoever) link. They are not losing out in any way. What’s the issue? The only person who is losing out is you. The seller still gets their cut – and yours too. Is there a hidden benefit to your ‘friend’ that I have missed in you losing out on your commission?
As the ‘friend’ in question, I would rather you made money out of the purchase I am going to make on your recommendation – you are my friend, you recommended a good product to me, it’s a way to share the benefits. You make some money and I get a good product. It is a good product, isn’t it? You wouldn’t stitch me up, would you? You are my friend. That is really the key point – you would only recommend something that you know, use and trust, wouldn’t you?
What really makes me mad is those folks who trot out the ‘I wouldn’t want to make…blah blah blah’ statements when you know at the bottom of it they do want to make money out of you – and they don’t care how they do it or what they have to say to get you to part with your hard earned cash. They use all kinds of sneaky methods that take you round the houses to put money in their pocket. That kind of double standard makes me blaze with fury. If it’s a good product – be honest, be open, be upfront. If you can answer ‘yes’ to that list of questions, what’s the issue? If it’s not a good product, if you can’t answer ‘yes’ to that list of questions – shame on you for trying to con people!
So, in the interests of maintaining my integrity in an atmosphere of absolute clarity and openness on this blog if I say I have no vested interest – I have no vested interest. If I say a friend recommended/told me about a site – my interest is friendship. If I say a product/site/service is free – it is free. If I recommend a product or service that you have to pay for, I have used it myself, I do use it myself, I do believe it is good, I do believe it will help you as much as it helped me – and yes, I will probably make some money out of it.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think is all so true and I think it’s also another very good reason for wanting to operate any where other than the IM niche.
In the UK the network marketing industry was introduced, struggled for a while and ultimately failed because the model didn’t work.
I can’t speak for the US or other Countries.
It seems that here, if you do deals or business with a ‘friend’ you expect a discount. You do not expect to be putting any change in their pockets.
I find it all as extraordinary as you – especially as my mindset is to actually ask if someone has an affiliate link I can use……….! I guess we all have different standards.
Excellent post. Thank you
I agree with Dee, this is an excellent post!
It was only yesterday that I stumbled across a blogging forum that asked people NOT to post profit-making blogs there. This is ludicrous – the “make money online” blogging niche may be saturated, but it’s a huge chunk of all the bloggers out there.
I’m not big on the money making thing, at least not yet – I want to establish my blog before I spend too much time looking at ads. I have a couple of ads on there at the moment but I’ve basically made nothing from them so far. However, they might make something in the future. I’ll have to wait and see.
Well we are all selling something for a profit. It can be the IM’ers selling products, it can be photographer showing photos, or the writer publishing poetry. It’s not always a monetary profit, it may be a boost to the ego or even earning recognition in a specific field. Whatever the type of profit, I don’t see why we should be bashful about it. Be proud of what you’re doing.
And, yes I agree with Dee, people are always asking me for a deal just because of friendship however tenuous. Whereas when I lived in Canada it was almost the reverse, if I could get something they wanted to buy, they would be willing to pay over the odds, or tip me, because of the service I provided.
Good post!! I agree wholeheartedly with what all of you are saying. I know that I need to make money and this Internet way is all I can do these days to accomplish that — and I also have a need to share non-tangibles with my readers — things like thoughts or advice for living and other non-monetary things along those lines.
By the same token, I don’t feel there’s a darn thing wrong in recommending something to my readers that I personally have found to be of considerable value. And, if I pick up a commission on something I recommend — or I don’t — I still hope that my readers will receive the same benefit I did.
I agree 100%, being shy when it comes to monetizing websites is plain foolish. Let’s face it, people don’t visit a certain website because it has no ads, people visit in order to gain information, it’s as simple as that.
As far as I am concerned, any blog/site can be filled with ads as long as quality information is provided on a regular basis.
Alan Johnson